4/1/1: 4 Random Thoughts from me, 1 tools to help Sales Engineers, 1 quote for motivation

4/1/1 Are you Afraid of New Beginnings?

November 18, 2020

By Bini Kanungo

4/1/1 Wednesday

4 Random Thoughts, 1 Tool, and 1 Quote

Hey everyone, can you believe it’s already mid-November? Goodness, time is going by fast; so fast that it sometimes feels like the first time I got interviewed by Ramzi and We the Sales Engineers was just yesterday. This week’s episode put me back in the hot-seat to discuss what it was like to change roles as an SE from one company to another.

Listen to our interview here.

Moving jobs is always an experience, and you really make of it what you decide to. It comes with challenges but comes with some great upside as well. Some of those thoughts I share in this week’s 4/1/1.

4 Random Thoughts From Me:

1- Trust in your past to drive you forward. As I said, changing jobs is a challenge, there are new people to get used to, new processes to acclimate to, and a whole new product to learn that may be in an entirely new space. When I felt completely lost in how to move forward, I trusted in the skills and confidence I grew in past roles to show me how to succeed in this one.

2- Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I try not to bother people if I can help it and working remotely makes it even harder for me to gauge when I may be bothering someone vs. not. Well, when you’re new, you pretty much have a free pass to ask people questions and if someone is too busy to answer you, they’ll point you in the right direction to get the right answer, which will expand your horizons even further.

3-You won’t know until you try. There are a lot of mental blockers that people put up that prevent them from doing things. If you’re ever unsure about something, try it, then you’ll really know how it’ll end up.

4- Keep in touch with old colleagues. You build so many relationships at the jobs you go to. If you have a close relationship with people at an old company, keep in touch with them. Not only do you retain a friendship, but you never know when you may need their help or vice versa. As we’ve talked a lot about it on the show, “it’s not always about what you know, but who you know.”

1 Tool:

Your Notebook.

No fancy online tool this week, but just your plain old notebook. Jot down your dumb questions, any observations as you learn, notes for calls, and review old notes to appreciate how far you’ve come (and get the perspective of someone that’s not familiar with the system you’re showing off).

Note that Ramzi loves his Rocketbook (affiliate link), at least when he was able to go out and see people since he can take his notes, snap a picture, and a PDF version would be sent to his Evernote, Email, Google Drive, and more. Then he can erase the notes and reuse the notebook.